


No Difference

by 00Aredhel00



Series: The Serpent's Fate [4]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Chronic Pain, Crowley Has Chronic Pain (Good Omens), Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Snake Crowley (Good Omens), So much fluff and love, Worried Aziraphale, but again not too much angst, but he has Aziraphale which makes everything a little better, did i mention the fluff?, mentions of Nagini
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 16:49:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20138749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/00Aredhel00/pseuds/00Aredhel00
Summary: It's winter and Crowley has unofficially moved in with Aziraphale. But it's not easy for him at this time of the year and the cold is not the only problem.





	No Difference

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for all of your comments and kudos! <3 It really makes me happy that you all seem to like this series so much! I have a lot of fun writing it, so there will probably a lot more :)

The winter was a cold one and they hardly ever left Aziraphale’s flat. Crowley was with him most of the time now; he only went to his own place for watering the plants and even then he hardly ever complained when Aziraphale offered to do it instead.

It was fine with Aziraphale, he didn’t mind mostly staying at home during the cold months if this made the winter more bearable for his lover. It wasn’t just the pain. Crowley had explained to him that he was, at least partly, cold-blooded, so he was less active in winter, preferred to stay at home and slept more than usual. That explained why he hadn’t seen him as often during this season in the past. 

That, too, was fine with Aziraphale. He was just happy that Crowley had obviously chosen his flat as his winter domicile. He was practically living with him right now and he seemed to be comfortable and thinking of that was enough to make the angel smile. 

While Crowley now usually stayed in the flat, which was much warmer than it had been in the winters before, Aziraphale still spent his days in the book shop, reading, sorting the books and fending off customers. But he often closed the shop earlier than before and it was nice to have someone to come home to, to have Crowley greet him, eat with him and then cuddle up on the sofa. Sometimes the demon even cooked for him – Aziraphale had had no idea that he knew how to cook until he came upstairs to the delicious smell of pasta with self-made sauce! It had been delicious, too. 

The angel had brought finally a modern tv home and by now he had learned to appreciate watching movies every other night, cuddling up on the sofa with his demon. On other nights, the tv would stay off and Aziraphale would read a book out loud with Crowley’s head in his lap, seemingly asleep, but Aziraphale knew all too well that in truth he was listening intently and when they talked about the book later, he knew everything about it. 

Today, however, he already closed the shop around noon. He had not been comfortable with leaving Crowley alone as the demon had obviously been unwell. He hadn’t complained but Aziraphale had learned to see the small signs, like him not getting up unnecessarily, shifting his weight while trying to get more comfortable. It had started like two or three days ago but it had gradually become worse and this morning it had, at least to Aziraphale, been obvious that it had become quite bad. 

The first time this had happened since Crowley practically lived here with him, he had offered to switch bodies once more for a day or two, but the demon had refused to even discuss it and so he hadn’t brought it up again. Still, he wanted to be there with him, make him more comfortable, if he could. 

When he opened the door to the flat, he already heard the flames crackling in the fireplace. Crowley liked the fireplace and even in his super modern flat he had one. He said he preferred the heat of the fire to that of the heater. Aziraphale agreed with him there. 

The heater was still on, though, and had the angel been a human, he would have found it far too warm. But he wasn’t and it was bearable. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but he knew that Crowley needed this in winter and so he had gotten used to it. For him it was just comfort, for Crowley it was a question of being able to stay awake at least for several hours a day even when it was very cold outside and, more importantly, it often eased the pain. 

The sight that greeted him, however, suggested that it was pretty bad today. 

Usually Crowley refused to turn into a snake just because he wasn’t feeling well. It was a matter of pride. He wouldn’t let Her win, wouldn’t let Her control him and most of all, wouldn’t allow Her to take his dignity away. In a way, Aziraphale understood and respected that. Still, he suspected that it would be easier if the demon would allow himself to be in his snake form regularly instead of waiting for the pain to become unbearable enough to force him to turn for a while. To Aziraphale it seemed that it wasn’t just the weather or strain that made the pain worse. Crowley had been here in the warmth for days without doing all too much: It also got worse, if he didn’t turn into a snake for a certain amount of time, which did make sense. 

As far as the angel knew, Crowley hadn’t resumed his snake form for weeks, months maybe. Actually he had no idea when he had last been a snake. Aziraphale had certainly not seen it. Even if he had come upstairs at an unusual time, the demon had been in his human form. 

Not this time. 

On the armchair right in front of the fireplace he found a giant snake, curled up comfortably. The eyes were open, but the angel was reasonably sure that he was asleep. 

Aziraphale smiled a little. He hadn’t seen Crowley’s snake form since Eden and he had almost forgotten how beautiful he was with his shiny black and red scales, now shining in the firelight. He wished Crowley could see that there was nothing to be ashamed of, nothing demeaning in spending some time in this form to be more comfortable in his human form. It probably wouldn’t help if Crowley was unwell because of the weather or because he had overstrained himself, but if it was true that it also got worse when he was in his human form for too long, it would certainly help with that. 

Quietly, the angel sat down on the sofa and instantly regretted coming up so early, because Crowley heard him despite his efforts. The demon woke up and if it had been possible in his current form, his eyes certainly would have widened. Without hesitation, he returned into his usual form and Aziraphale winced when he heard him groan quietly as the pain suddenly returned full force. 

“Oh darling, please don’t. If you’re more comfortable as a snake right now, don’t turn back because of me.”

“’s fine, angel.” But his voice was tight and he didn’t get up to join Aziraphale on the sofa as he usually would have. 

“No, it isn’t!” Aziraphale got up instead, walked over to the armchair and went to his knees before taking Crowley’s hand in his. Despite the warmth of the room his hand was cold. “Crowley, there’s nothing wrong with taking your other form once in a while. Maybe it would even be easier if you spent a few hours every day or every other day as a snake instead of waiting until you have to.”

“Bullshit.”

The angel wasn’t offended by this and he knew that there was nothing reasonable behind this argument, nothing but Crowley’s stubbornness and pride. 

“You don’t prove anything to anyone by staying in your human form as long as possible, my dear. I hate to break it to you, but She probably doesn’t even notice. And don’t you ever think that I don’t want you around if you’re a snake. You’re beautiful, in both forms.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Why in the world would I get drunk without you?”

This got a small, half-hearted laugh, more of a snort, really, out of Crowley and Aziraphale smiled a little.

They were both quiet for a little while. When the demon spoke again, Aziraphale had to strain to hear him. “You don’t mind having a giant reptile around?”

“I don’t mind having a rude demon around. Why would I mind if he’s a snake every now and then?”

“Point taken.”

“And I did like Nagini, too, didn’t I?” And now the angel understood why this had been such a surprise for Crowley. 

“Yeah. But he’s tiny compared to me.”

“So? Please, dear, do turn back. You’re clearly uncomfortable.” That was true, it was quite obvious. The demon’s whole body was tense and he looked exhausted. His golden eyes were staring intently at the flames before him. Aziraphale wondered how bad it had really been for the last few days. Crowley had had a lot of practise in hiding his pain, after all. 

Crowley sighed and finally obliged. The hand under Aziraphale’s vanished as Crowley’s body changed into a form that didn’t have limbs. Before him he again saw the black and red snake, whose eyes now turned away from the flames and looked at Aziraphale expectantly. Or was it anxiously? To Aziraphale’s defence: Reading a snake’s expression wasn’t easy.

Whatever the look meant, the angel just smiled. “There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Gently he touched the sleek scales right under the lifted head. “As I said before, you’re beautiful.” 

A snake obviously couldn’t role its eyes or Crowley would have done just that before resting his head on the armrest. He looked so much more relaxed. 

“Do you think Nagini is ok?”

At the sudden change of subject, Crowley lifted his head again. “What?” His voice was very similar to that of his human form, just a little quieter, with a slight hissing. 

Aziraphale smiled, maybe a little embarrassed. “Well, it’s dreadfully cold outside.” 

“He’sss hibernating, angel. He’sss fine.”

“Oh, you’re probably right.” A pause. “We should check on him in spring.”

“Whatever.” 

“I meant it, you know. I do like this form.”

“Shut up.” There was no heat behind it and Crowley did nothing to get rid of Aziraphale’s hand which was still resting just beneath his head.

**Author's Note:**

> I really should have them fight for once or face some other crisis, but it's so much fun to write about them being there for each other and just be happy with each other for once :D 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like this story! Please let me know what you think and if there's anything you want to see later on in the series.


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